Meet Mark

Let me introduce myself. My name is Mark Sisson. I’m 63 years young. I live and work in Malibu, California. In a past life I was a professional marathoner and triathlete. Now my life goal is to help 100 million people get healthy. I started this blog in 2006 to empower people to take full responsibility for their own health and enjoyment of life by investigating, discussing, and critically rethinking everything we’ve assumed to be true about health and wellness...

The ‘New’ News on Avandia: Who Knew?

Another drug, another round of heretofore unknown side effects. Well…not exactly unknown. Are we really surprised?

Avandia made a big splash recently because the popular type 2 diabetes drug was linked to an increased risk for serious heart problems. It gets better: the newnews on Avandia shows that had doctors been adequately made aware of the potential trouble and therefore accurately reported related heart trouble in their diabetic patients, the entire eight year debacle would have likely been prevented. Instead, as you’d expect, we’re suddenly seeing a tripling of heart problems being reported in relation to Avandia. It’s yet another unnecessary slew of health problems thanks to a drug that needed better safety guidelines, and it’s yet another case for greater pharmaceutical transparency. But most of all it’s a case for prevention of the disease in the first place.

Have you been touched by diabetes?

No? Give it a month.

The best part about all of this: Avandia is primarily used to treat cases of type 2 stemming from (wait for it) obesity. We’ve managed to create an egregiously successful obesity epidemic and millions of cases of designer diabetes thanks to garbage fare along the likes of the Bees’ weekend trip to the middle aisles of the grocery store.

I wonder: for all the billions spent shilling and spilling Avandia all over the place, how many health education classes and nutritious food subsidies could have been given to obese, diabetic patients instead?